Enter to win a signed George R.R. Martin anthology for BCS Science-Fantasy Month
Issue #90, Special Issue for BCS Science-Fantasy Month — March 8, 2012
Featuring science-fantasy cover art by Mats Minnhagen and Author Interviews
Issue also available on Kindle, and by ebook subscription, and as Epub, Mobi, or PDF
“The Mote-Dancer and the Firelife,” by Chris Willrich
The Spinies pressed flutes to their chest-maws and trilled a maniacal improvisation, something like Chinese opera filtered through jazz and spliced with a catfight. Not what I’d call music to die for, but my opinion didn’t count much. Customs had generously allowed me to keep my pistol, after draining its battery to red. I had maybe three shots. Worse yet, if I killed someone, that was the end of my journey to sanity. I’d be deported or executed.
“Scry,” by Anne Ivy
Esthe had no acid and no knife, but she had a little light from the keycards. She bit her tongue hard and spat blood into her hand. Within it she scried, not for the first time, that Karnon Nameless Dae was not a human man. He was neininki; alien. Like all neininki, a lie would cost him his life. Having promised to kill all who sheltered the prince, he would never spare her life.
Author Interviews, for BCS Science-Fantasy Month:
Anne Ivy on “Scry,” alienness and hegemony, and how Oedipus’s parents caused their prophesied end.
Chris Willrich on “The Mote-Dancer and the Firelife,” Quixotes and Sanchos, and how artificial augmentation in humans might impact how we would interact with alien species. (Coming March 15)
“The Mote-Dancer and the Firelife,” by Chris Willrich, from BCS #90
The Spinies pressed flutes to their chest-maws and trilled a maniacal improvisation, something like Chinese opera filtered through jazz and spliced with a catfight. Not what I’d call music to die for, but my opinion didn’t count much.
“The Secret of Pogopolis,” by Matthew Bey, from BCS #43
Carneby and the young woman attend the Apogee Swim, that moment at the height of The City’s bound when the air is becalmed. Lifeguards watch over the citizens who swim into the great void with flippers and paddles made of cardboard and tape. The young woman is ecstatic as she ventures out above the green and blue smear of The Earth. They thrash their cardboard fins, flirting with the airy abyss which is the only respite from the numbing continuity of The City.